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Friday, July 12, 2013

Washington Capitals D-Camp 2013: Team White vs. Team Red, July 12th

It was a good day to wear red at Kettler Capitals Iceplex,
and we don’t just mean the fan apparel.Team Red won today’s intrasquad scrimmage by a 7-3 margin on this, the
penultimate day of Caps Development Camp 2013.

From the time Andre Burakovsky of Team Red faced off with
Justin Larson of Team White to start the contest, it was going to be a long day
for the men in white.Team White did
have some early success early, but a fundamental mistake cost them the game’s first
goal.Chandler Stephenson broke up a
pass thrown through the middle and headed off on a breakaway, scoring on the
play to give Team Red an early 1-0 lead.

Team White evened the contest at a goal apiece when Riley
Barber converted a pretty centering feed from Matt Petgrave, but Team Red
regained the lead it would not relinquish when Conor MacPhee finished a 2-on-1
break with Travis Boyd.

After Team Red scored again on a goal-mouth scramble to make
it 3-1, Stephane Legault made it 4-1 for The Red Men and threatened to turn the
game into a rout.But with last seconds
of the period ticking off, Michal Cajkovsky of Team White let fly with a bomb
from the left point through a maze of bodies to cut the lead to two goals with
4.3 seconds left in the period. His was
the most animated goal celebration of the day.At the first intermission, it was Team Red: 4 – Team White: 2.

We should note one other thing about the first period.Matt Petgrave laid quite a hip check on
Brandon Tanev who flew into the air, went completely upside down, skates
pointed to the ceiling, and came down in what could have been an unfortunate
manner.But, these being youngsters, he
popped up and jumped right back into the play.

Period two started with missed chances on both sides.Early on, there was a pile up of bodies in
front of Team Red goalie Brandon Anderson, with the puck lying still just a
foot off the left post, but White could not convert the opportunity before the
puck was swept away.At the other end,
Zach Sanford of Team Red had a chance on a backhand to the left of goalie
Sergei Kostenko, but his shot hit the near post and bounced away.

At the ten-minute mark (9:47 left, actually), Anderson and
Kostenko retired to their respective benches in favor of Louis-Philip Guindon
for Team Red and Clarke Saunders for Team White.It was Team Red taking first advantage of the
change in goal, although Saunders was left hanging out to dry on the play.Caleb Herbert crossed wires with a teammate
at the blue line, and the puck slid away from him, outside of his reach just
enough for Stephenson to grab it and take off on another breakaway.He made it 2-for-2 in conversions, and Team
Red had a 5-2 lead.

On the next shift, though, Chance Braid got it back for Team
White with a put-back from the doorstep to make it 5-3, Team Red.Later, Stephenson would get his chance for
the hat trick with a semi-break, but was unable to convert the opportunity.He did, however, draw a penalty on the
play.Team Red was not able to convert
the man advantage opportunity, but they did carry that 5-3 lead into the second
intermission.

The pace seemed to pick up a bit in the third, and it was
Team Red with the first early chance.Andre Burakovsky and Tom Wilson carried the puck in on a 2-on-1 rush, but
when Burakovsky slid the puck over to Wilson, Michal Cajkovsky displayed his
talent in the defensive end in addition to his booming shot by tying up Wilson
before he could get a shot off.

Turnovers, though, were a problem for Team White all day,
and they committed another, giving Zach Harnden a chance to display his
breakaway skills.He converted the
chance to make it 6-3, Team Red.

With the clock winding down, Team White did create some
chances, but in one instance a puck rolled off a stick in the low slot, and in
another a one-timer was shanked wide.That made for a desperate Team White, but they got another chance with a
late power play.It was an opportunity
to create a 6-on-4 advantage when they pulled Saunders for the extra
attacker.But despite the two-man
advantage in numbers, it was Tom Wilson who would score for Team Red, burying a
shorthanded empty net shot to give Team Red their final 7-3 margin.

It was a well-attended contest at KCI, and the boys put on a
show.This might be, as head coach Adam
Oates suggested earlier in the week, more of a getting to know sort of week than evaluation –
players getting to know the organization and the system, as well as getting
valuable advice on their game, their training, and their nutrition, and for the
organization to get a closer look at just what they have in terms of
prospects.But for the boys, it is a
chance to impress, to perhaps get another look down the road and perhaps a
contract, if the fates are kind.Whatever the motivation, it was a very entertaining contest, indeed.

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The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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